Colfax council unanimously adopts midyear budget amendments, cites sales-tax dip but healthy reserves

Colfax City Council voted unanimously March 11 to adopt midyear adjustments to the city’s FY2025–26 budget, approving a package of three technical amendments that staff said are absorbable given the city’s currently healthy reserves.

Katrina Olsen, the city’s administrative services officer, told the council that general fund revenues as of Dec. 31, 2025, were $1.14 million of $2.69 million budgeted (42%), and that sales-tax collections—Colfax’s largest general-fund revenue—showed a notable decrease from the prior year. "You do have a very healthy unrestricted fund balance right now of over $5 million," Olsen said, while also noting that sales-tax receipts had been higher the previous year and the state’s timing and true-up process can affect month-to-month comparisons.

The three amendments the council adopted were: restoring a $25,000 downtown/outdoor-dining CIP rollover that staff said had not been carried into the new budget; adding $19,370 to cover additional Tyler Technologies software modules (to support electronic timecards, accounts receivable integration and project/grant accounting); and removing a $27,000 sewer CIP item because the work was completed in a prior fiscal year.

Olsen described the software modules as steps to reduce duplicated bookkeeping and improve payroll and project-tracking efficiency. "We're putting an accounts receivable module into Tyler Technologies and getting rid of that other software that's being used for accounts receivable only," she said.

Council members pressed staff on the sales-tax shortfall and the sheriff contract amount; staff said the sheriff contract figure used for budgeting was $936,364 and that property-tax receipts are affected by state apportionment timing (January and later installments). Olsen said the apparent sales-tax decline was partly a normalization after unusually high collections last year and that the city is exploring enhanced sales-tax consulting support.

The council approved the resolution amending the FY2025–26 budget by roll call vote; all members present voted in favor. Staff emphasized the changes would slightly reduce the estimated general-fund balance (a net $44,370 decrease) but could be absorbed given existing unrestricted reserves and the timing of revenues.

What happens next: staff will incorporate the approved amendments into accounting records and continue to monitor quarter-to-quarter revenue trends; council and staff also penciled a public budget workshop for April 29, 2026, to gather public input on the FY2026–27 budget schedule and preliminary numbers.